This chapter focuses on network design and implementation considerations after a decision has been reached to connect to a service provider via Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking and the choice has been made regarding the appropriate network model (centralized, distributed, or hybrid) as discussed in Chapter 6, "SIP Trunking Models."

Considerations about the network design and implementation of SIP trunking include

Geographic and Regulatory Considerations

Regulatory: Not all countries regard Voice over IP (VoIP) calls in the same way, and although virtually no country regulates what can be deployed inside an enterprise network, several countries regulate to varying degrees what calls can be handed off between an enterprise and a public (service provider) network. Ensure that you become familiar with country-specific regulations when deploying SIP trunking, especially if the endpoint (the site where the call originates) and the SIP trunk (where the call enters a public network) are in different regulatory jurisdictions.

Distance: A second consideration is sheer distance, with the hairpinned media paths resulting from the centralized SIP trunk model discussed in the Chapter 6. If the remote office originating the call is in California and the central SIP trunk is in New York whereas the PSTN destination of the call is again in California, the media path for this call traverses the North American continent twice, adding latency to the end-to-end call.

Adding latency to signaling paths is much less of a concern (it might add marginally to post-dial delay but does not impact voice quality on the active call), but latency of the media path directly affects voice quality and should be taken into consideration when designing and connecting a SIP trunk into an enterprise network.